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Episode 0: Mayor Louis
(1,341/50,000 words so far)

August 13th, 2021
The flash of cameras filled city hall on this particular snowy evening, which was also loud with the voices of the citizens after they had just heard the announcement.  Louis Weatherby had just been elected Mayor of Winterton and somehow beat Jay Winters, the assumed favorite among the crowd and current living relative to the town’s founding father, Jeremiah Winters.

Louis stood there proudly in his expensive suit and slicked back black hair, thanking the crowd for his win as he flashed his baby blue eyes to each of them as he spoke.  “As mayor, Winterton will never be the same.” He spoke in a voice that somehow seemed both authoritative and warm at the same time.

As the mayor spoke, a piercing gaze fell upon him throughout the evening, fixated on this man who had somehow won the election despite all signs pointing the opposite direction.  Mayor Louis, too busy soaking in the cheers from the crowd, seemed not to notice as he continued waving and flashing his pearly whites for the cameras.

An hour later, Mayor Louis had walked with his team out of city hall and to his limo.  “Mayor Louis! A word for the Daily Frost?” An eager young reporter asked as he held out his tape recorder.  Mayor Louis simply leaned toward his secretary and whispered to her as she shooed away the reporter while the mayor flashed another smile and waved as he stepped into his limo.

“I thought that was never going to be over with.  What’s on the agenda for tomorrow?” Louis asked his assistant as the limo drove out of Winterton and began heading up into the mountains.  “Well, you’ve got a meeting tomorrow morning, and you’re meeting Mayor Stevens tomorrow in Summersend City for golf.” His assistant replied as he looked through his planner.

“Ugh, Stevens.  He’ll probably be asking for me to help fund his own re-election campaign.” Louis responded as he looked out the window towards the mountains.  “I swear, you give the guy some cash to get something out of the papers, and suddenly you become his personal bank.”

Eventually the limo made it to its destination at the top of the mountain; an extravagant looking mansion near the top, overlooking the city below.  Mayor Louis and his assistant stepped out of the limo as it drove off and the two of them began walking towards the door.  “Thanks John, that’s all I’m going to need today.” Louis said as he waved his hand back, halting his meek assistant from moving further.  “O-oh, alright sir.  But how am I supposed to get home since the limo left?” he asked as Louis made it to the door as an elderly servant opened it from the inside.  “Not my problem John.  See you bright and early tomorrow morning!” He said halfheartedly as he waved his hand without turning to see John’s expression.  The elderly servant simply gave John a look of disgust as he closed the door.

The elderly servant then grabbed an extravagant looking red robe with Louis’ initials on it as he put it on Louis and handed him a glass of champagne.  “Thanks Lionel, that’ll be all for today.” Louis said simply as the servant named Lionel bowed slightly, retrieved his belongings, and left through the entrance.

Louis walked out the back and onto the patio of his mansion, leaning against the glass railing as he’d done every night since he’d first moved to Winterton 5 years ago. He took a sip of his champagne as he looked down at the town that was now his, a grin appearing on his face.  “Things are going to change around here, that’s for sure.” he stated simply.

“Yes they are.” A voice replied back. Louis, surprised to hear another voice, turned around quickly as he almost dropped his glass.  Though initially startled, he seemed to relax a bit.  “Oh, it’s just you.  How did you get in here?” Louis asked with a curious expression on his face.  The figure, their features shrouded behind a dark hooded jacket chose not to answer.  “I almost didn’t recognize your voice at first, it sounded different.” Louis added, as he finally seemed to notice what the figure was wearing. 

“Why...why are you dressed like that? Did you lose a bet or something?” He asked, again to no response.  Louis shrugged and turned back towards the railing and leaned against it.  “I already know what you’re going to ask, and I’m not going to change my mind.  What’s done is done.” he added with a somewhat mischievous tone in his voice.  He then turned back to the figure, who hadn’t moved and stood there, staring through the darkness.  “Okay seriously, while I’m enjoying your silence, I really wish you’d say something.”

The figure continued standing there as still as a statue, as Louis began to look bored.  “Fine, if you’re not going to say anything, I’m going to bed.  You can find your own way out.” He said sternly as he began to walk around the figure.  In an instant, the figure pushed as hard as they could against Louis, smashing the glass railing behind him as Louis grabbed onto the patio surface the best that he could.

Walking over, the figure stood over and gazed down at the desperately clinging Louis.  “W-why are you doing this?!” he screamed out as the figure knelt down.  “Revenge.” They replied as they pulled out a pistol with a silencer and shot the hanging Louis in the head as he died instantly, letting go as his lifeless body tumbled down the mountain.

News of Mayor Louis’ death had surprisingly not spread through Winterton at first.  His body was found at the bottom of the mountain near the road, but the person who had found him mistook him for a sleeping bum and took him to the local homeless shelter.

“Yeah I found this guy on the road and he seems to have dozed off, but I figured he needed a place to stay” the young man explained to the elderly woman at the counter as she fixed her spectacles, only to let out a gasp.  “Why that’s...the most ragged clothes I’ve seen in a while!” She replied in surprise as she ran her wrinkled hands across the dead Louis’ dirty wrinkled suit.

The old receptionist beckoned the young man carrying the dead body forward as she slowly shuffled towards the common area as the young man followed.  “He’ll be comfortable here, the poor dear.” The woman added with a toothless smile as they made their way into the common area.

“Oh Greta, could you help this man get settled in?” the old woman asked one of the passing volunteers as the young woman named Greta stopped.  “Sure Gladys, it’s no problem at all.” She replied as she walked over to the young man and the dead Louis.  “So I’d assume it’s this guy checking in? Well I can he--” she started, stopping suddenly as her face went pale.

“Um…you realize that you’re holding a dead body, right?” She asked as her voice had a faint tremble.  The young man seemed surprised by this as he looked at the dead body some more.  “He looked fine to me, he just looked like he fell asleep.” He replied as Greta narrowed her gaze a bit.  “You’re kidding...right?  Do you not see the fact that he has a gaping hole in the center of his forehead?”  Greta asked, as the young man continued to be surprised by this revelation, only now noticing the large bullet hole oozing with blood.  “Huh, how did I miss that?”

Eventually the police were finally called, when someone finally realized that the dead body was that of Mayor Louis.  When asked why he wasn’t reported right away, the young man, young woman named Greta, and old woman named Gladys had long gone.  Supposedly according to eyewitnesses, Gladys had decided to adopt Greta and the young man known as Hans and invited them for dinner at her place.  Nobody has heard from them since.

New material has been added to the prologue, finalizing it.

The first official "Episode" of the story.  We see that there's more to this town than meets the eye in a very unique way...at least, unique to those who don't live in the town itself.  What's this domino effect that has started? What will happen to the town next? Will we ever find out who killed Mayor Louis?  And more importantly, was the last paragraph of Episode 0 a really bad Hansel and Gretal nod?  Find out more in the later episodes of The Winterton Stories (Title Pending)!

Episode 1: Mike Michino and Thom Wolf
(2354/50,000 words so far)

January 23rd, 2021
The morning sun slowly invaded the room with its light, shining upon the bed of the young Mike Michino.  Grumbling, Mike pulled the covers over his head and attempted to avoid the incoming light.  It was a losing battle, however, as it was followed by the alarm on his phone going off loudly, yelling at him quite literally to wake up.

Mike grumbled as he came out from under the covers, rubbing his sleepy dark green eyes and scratching his messy auburn hair. He let out a large yawn as he sat there for a moment, contemplating if he had really wanted to get up and start the day, even though he knew he’d be needed at Mrs. Fitzgerald’s floral shop.

Mrs. Fitzgerald was a nice enough old woman, though she seemed to care too much about Mike’s love life (though mistakenly always asking when he was going to get a girlfriend rather than a boyfriend).  But Winterton, while a nice and quiet town was also boring, an example of “more of the same” with each passing day.  Mike couldn’t remember even remember his own childhood...though this was more because him and the rest of the Winterton residents had always been rather than having been born and gone through the process of growing up (but don’t tell them that!).

As per usual routine, Mike took his daily shower, ate his daily breakfast of cereal and toast, dressed in his daily uniform, and made his way to the floral shop as he did almost daily. 

The floral shop itself was only a block and a half away from his apartment, so he was there right on time as Mrs. Fitzgerald opened the shop.  “You were almost late!” Mrs. Fitzgerald said as she always did as Mike apologized as he always did, put on his apron, and made his way behind the counter to prepare for the inevitable customers that day.

~~Thom was excited to make a fresh start in the world for the first time in his life.  He had just broken up with his ex barely a month ago and decided that it was time for some kind of change.  As  he had sat in his apartment the week before and pulled out his maps, one particular place had stood out to him: a place called Winterton.

He had never heard of this place before, and nobody he knew seemed to have heard of it either.  It was a mysterious place that had advertised itself as the best place for folks to get a fresh start.  From the pictures he had seen online, it looked like the ideal place to start anew, and within moments he was selling his apartment and hitting the road.

Now the town was in his sight as he drove near the city limits, and it seemed as perfect as the advertisements made it to be.  The people were friendly, though they seemed surprised to see a new face.  One elderly gentleman in particular walked up to Thom as he was walking around the town.  “You don’t seem familiar, where are you from?” He asked curiously, as Thom turned to him.  “Oh, I’m from Seattle.” he replied, as the old man thought to himself for a moment.  “Seattle? I’ve never heard of that place.  Well in any case, welcome to Winterton.” He said with a smile as he shuffled off. Never heard of Seattle? That’s pretty weird. Thom thought to himself as he shrugged it off.

As he walked around the town, his eyes fell upon a lovely little shop called Flora’s Florals, as an elderly lady stood outside sweeping the entrance.  Maybe looking at some flowers will help me relax a bit. Thom thought to himself as he headed towards the shop and opened the door.

“Welcome to Flora’s Florals.” Mike said halfheartedly looking down at the register.  As he looked up to the customer walking in, it was as if time had slowed down as he caught sight of the customer’s handsome face, his relaxing smile that seemed to slowly go away with every step.  It was as if time had slowed down, because it had in that moment.  Because Winterton was not your usual town in many ways.

“Wait, what the fuck is happening, why am I walking so slow?!” Thom screamed out in concern, though Mike didn’t seem to notice.  His gaze fell upon Thom’s perfectly groomed black hair, his alluring blue eyes, the perfectly trimmed beard and mustache.  It was as if birds were flying and singing...because they were.

“WHERE THE FUCK DID THESE BIRDS COME FROM?!” Thom screamed out as the birds had appeared out of thin air.  He attempted to swipe them away, but his movements were delayed due to the slowed time.  Mike continued seeming oblivious to Thom’s freaked out screams as he admired the way his head turned, the way his chin and face seemed perfectly shaped, the bead of sweat trickling down his face (mainly because Thom was so freaked out that it had made him sweat).  In that moment, it was as if the light had perfectly hit Thom to show off his handsome face...because it had.

“AHH, THIS LIGHT IS TOO MUCH!” he screamed out as he covered his face, stumbling to make his way back to the entrance.  Once he had hit the doors and made his way out, time seemed to resume normally, the birds had gone, and the light had gone down.  “I can’t deal with this place, I’m out of here!” he screamed out as he ran to his car and drove as far away from Winterton as he possibly could. 

He would later tell of this to his friends and family who of course wouldn’t believe him and would suggest he write books for a living. He’d later forget about his odd ordeal and settle down with a handsome real-estate agent...but little did he know that his brief visit to Winterton had started a domino effect that would change the town forever.